» Site Navigation
0 members and 652 guests
No Members online
Most users ever online was 47,180, 07-16-2025 at 05:30 PM.
» Today's Birthdays
» Stats
Members: 75,903
Threads: 249,097
Posts: 2,572,069
Top Poster: JLC (31,651)
|
-
Idk what to do about her....:( What would you do?
Ok, so Ill give you a brief lowdown about Nadia... our little bee we adopted in January. She was born with a deformed jaw, and refused food until we got her. We forcefed her a few times, as she was almost emaciated.. then got her to eat fuzzy mice on her own. A BIG step. She began to gain weight. Then, starting in April, she began to refuse food again. At the end of April, she began to drool and bubble. I took her to my vet first week of May, and also asked him to take a good look at her jaw and assess how functioning it is, how bad the deformity was, etc., and what her future was going to be like. After a thorough inspection he said her bottom jaw is very weak from lack of calcium, since she is almost a year old and only able to eat fuzzy mice, which have a tiny undeveloped bone structure. Made sense. He also said the way the jaw was formed, it seemd to "wag" or just "float" there. I also took a close look, and on the bottom right, there almost no jaw there at all. Her tongue sticks out the side when she flicks it more than half the time, and its always partly open, never completely closing. The vet said she still has some fight to her, and to not give up yet. So, he prescribed 10 days of antibiotics just in case for the bubbling, and He told me to put her on a regimen of moistened pureed puppy food kibbles, tubefed every four days or so, to give her extra calcium and calories. In addition, he said DO NOT forcefeed her. Her jaw is already so weak forcefeeding isn't an option because it could break easily. Shes put on a little weight, but shes miserable. I hate having to tubefeed her its so stressful. Last night, I gave her a live fuzzy asf and watched her from across the room(shes in QT) She grabbed it! However, after an hour struggle to try and swallow it, she gave up and spit it out. Watching her really upset me. It was at this point I realized she cant "walk" the prey down her mouth and into her throat like a snake with a normally functioning jaw. Nadia will be a year old in a few weeks. She weighs 146 grams. Tubefeeding is so stressful for her but she puts up a good fight, and it seems like shes trying to survive. Im just so torn.. My husband and I discussed this last night, but couldn't come to a decision. Should I euthanize her? Or should I keep doing as Im doing? I hate to see her soo stressed and miserable. I keep going back and forth. I don't now what to do. What would you do? Phone users, sorry for the "epic wall o' text" .
Last edited by 4theSNAKElady; 05-28-2013 at 10:03 AM.
ALL THAT SLITHERS - Ball Python aficionado/keeper
breeder of African soft fur Rats. Keeper of other small exotic mammals.
10 sugar gliders
2 tenrecs
5 jumping spiders
paludarium with fish
Brisingr the albino
Snowy the BEL
Piglet the albino conda hognose
FINALLY got my BEL,no longer breeding snakes. married to mechnut450..
-
Posting Permissions
- You may not post new threads
- You may not post replies
- You may not post attachments
- You may not edit your posts
-
Forum Rules
|